Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Nov 4;15(21):7781.
doi: 10.3390/ma15217781.

Bio-Inspired Micro- and Nanorobotics Driven by Magnetic Field

Anton V Chesnitskiy  1 , Alexey E Gayduk  1 , Vladimir A Seleznev  1 , Victor Ya Prinz  1
Affiliations
Review

Bio-Inspired Micro- and Nanorobotics Driven by Magnetic Field

Anton V Chesnitskiy et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

In recent years, there has been explosive growth in the number of investigations devoted to the development and study of biomimetic micro- and nanorobots. The present review is dedicated to novel bioinspired magnetic micro- and nanodevices that can be remotely controlled by an external magnetic field. This approach to actuate micro- and nanorobots is non-invasive and absolutely harmless for living organisms in vivo and cell microsurgery, and is very promising for medicine in the near future. Particular attention has been paid to the latest advances in the rapidly developing field of designing polymer-based flexible and rigid magnetic composites and fabricating structures inspired by living micro-objects and organisms. The physical principles underlying the functioning of hybrid bio-inspired magnetic miniature robots, sensors, and actuators are considered in this review, and key practical applications and challenges are analyzed as well.

Keywords: bio-inspired robots; biomimetic materials; magnetic composite; magnetic field; magnetic micro-/nanorobots; soft robotics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Stages in the formation of arrays of rolled-up semiconductor and polymer 3D shells. The rolling of strained films in a tube scroll occurs after their separation from the substrate by selective liquid etching [13]. (b) Schematic representation of a rolled-up multilayer GMR sensor for the in-flow detection of magnetic objects inside a microfluidic channel [124]. Copyright 2011, American Chemical Society. (c) Domain structure in bent cylindrical films. Reproduced from [121], © IOP Publishing. Ltd. All rights reserved. Top row: circular magnetization without a longitudinal component (azimuthal) and with a longitudinal component (helical). Bottom row: radial and longitudinal magnetization. (d) Tracking the trajectory in magnetic field of a rolled-up magnetic coil with in-plane magnetization [125].
Figure 10
Figure 10
(a) Schematic structure of a biomimetic spermatozoon of 322-µm length. The dimensions of the ellipsoidal head are a ≈ 42 µm and b ≈ 28 µm. (b) SEM photos of four-turn microhelices and the process of transporting a sperm cell captured by a magnetic microhelices [138]. Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society.
Figure 14
Figure 14
(a) Function of biomimetic magnetic cilia. (b) Fabrication procedure of magnetically flexible conical arrays. Observation of the movement of a microsphere effected by an array of magnetic cilia in an external magnetic field of B = 0.7 T [151]. (c) Schematic representation of the formation of magnetic epithelial cilia. (d,e) Self-assembly of magnetic nanoparticles in a magnetic field gradient inside a polymer matrix, and optical photos of fabricated cilia under applied external magnetic field [153,154]. Copyright 2010, American Chemical Society. Reproduced from [153]. Copyright 2012, American Chemical Society. Reproduced from [154]. CC BY 3.0.
Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Approaches to the fabrication and control of magnetic microrobots. (b) Methods for actuating biomimetic micro- and nanorobots. (c) Dependence of magnetization on the external magnetic field for hard and soft magnetics. (d) Schematic representation of a polymer with magnetic particles cured without and in the presence of a magnetic field. Reproduced from [24]. CC BY 4.0. (e) Movement of magnetic object in a uniform and non-uniform magnetic field.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Schematic image of biomimetic non-magnetic swimmers. The length of the head and tail of the designed polymer swimmer is ≈400 μm and ≈1500 μm, respectively. The self-propulsion speed reaches ≈10 μm/s. (b) The concept of manufacturing magnetic nanorods with a flexible polymer hinge. The image shows the flexible part of the polyelectrolyte shell connecting two Ni/Au/Pt segments. (c) Schematic and SEM image of 3-link swimmers [76]. Copyright 2012, American Chemical Society. The graph shows the dependence of the average propulsion speed on the frequency for 3-link swimmers. (d) Three-dimensional laser lithography and deposition of a Ni layer for magnetic actuation. The microswimmer made in IP-L 780 polymer using 3D laser lithography and the deposition of a Ni layer for magnetic actuation [77]. The total length of the microswimmer is 120 μm and the length of its magnetic head is ~40 μm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Schematic representation of the programming method for the magnetic structure and the resultant sinusoidal magnetization profile of the designed millimeter-sized swimmer. (b) Procedure of magnetization along a preset profile in the shape guider and control of a triangular silicone swimmer by an external magnetic field. (c) The process of formation of inchworm millimeter-sized magnetic robots using a 3D printer with fused deposition modeling and molding in silicone. (d) Schematic representation of the manufacturing process of a magnetic annelid-worm-like microswimmer and its propulsion in a magnetic field [78]. (e) Schematic representation of the beam bending under the action of an external magnetic field and the movement of the millimeter-sized swimmer in water, simulating the movement of a jellyfish [108].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of the manufacturing process of dual-driven biomimetic microrobots.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Photos of microswimmers of various lengths collected from chains of microparticles in a magnetic field. Reproduced from [83]. CC BY 4.0. (b) Three-stage formation of micro- and nanoswimmers based on iron oxide nanoparticles. (c) Design and manufacturing steps of magnetic microdimer swimmers and an optical image of Janus microdimers after magnetization. Reproduced from [85]. CC BY 4.0.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Fabrication methods of magnetic helical swimmers. (a) A method based on the self-rolling of a three-layer strained film with a nickel magnetic head [63]. Copyright 2009, American Chemical Society. (b) Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method [120]. Copyright 2009, American Chemical Society. (c) Three-dimensional direct laser lithography (DLW) [117]. John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ, USA). Copyright © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) The main manufacturing stages of the helical semiconductor InGaAs/GaAs/Cr swimmer. (b) Schematic representation of a template-based manufacturing process of helical nanoswimmers of 800 nm in length. (c) Manufacturing process of a 3D magnetic biodegradable swimmer using the two-photon polymerization method. Images of hydrogel microcoils obtained using optical microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy [80]. (d) Photo of Mastigonemes of Ochromonas and the manufacturing stages of a biomimetic rigid microswimmer.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Helical swimmers with various magnetic heads: (a) square-plate-head swimmer; (b) spherical-head swimmer (GLAD); (c) cylindrical-head swimmer; (d) toothed-head swimmer.
Figure 11
Figure 11
(a) Covering of S. platensis with magnetite and the MRI study of biohybrid microrobots inside a rodent. (b) Demonstration of Fe3O4-coated biohybrid magnetic cilia for treating the polycystic kidney disease [143]. Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society. (c) Manufacturing process of magnetic helical nanomotors coated with platelet membranes, and SEM photo of fabricated bare helical nanomotors [144].
Figure 12
Figure 12
Au-Ni-Au magnetic microdisks with functional DNA bioaptamers used to destroy mouse cancer cells.
Figure 13
Figure 13
(a) Manufacturing stages of a magnetic biomimetic robot and its SEM image. Demonstration of the microrobot’s movement under harsh environmental conditions: (1) movement with a load 100 times exceeding the weight of the robot; (2) overcoming obstacles. Reproduced from [146]. CC BY 4.0. (b) Manufacturing stages of the MEMS biomimetic three-dimensional ciliated microrobot and SEM photos of the ciliate microorganism Paramecium caudatum and the artificial magnetic microrobot. Reproduced from [82]. CC BY 4.0.
Figure 15
Figure 15
(a) Schematic and photo of ZnO/TiO2 ciliated films (a bent specimen is shown in the inset). The photo on the right shows the bending of ZnO/TiO2 cilia under the action of an external magnetic field [155]. (b) Schematic representation of a neon tetra fish and SEM photo of the artificial photonic structure fabricated in [156]. Copyright 2012, American Chemical Society.
Figure 16
Figure 16
An illustration of the fabrication process of the magnetic cilia tactile sensor, and an SEM image of the sensor. The response of the tactile sensor is initiated by applying vertical pressure in the temperature range from 20 to 140 °C. Reproduced from [168]. CC BY 4.0.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Soto F., Wang J., Ahmed R., Demirci U. Medical micro/nanorobots in precision medicine. Adv. Sci. 2020;21:2002203. doi: 10.1002/advs.202002203. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu Z., Chen Y., Mukasa D., Pak O.S., Gao W. Medical micro/nanorobots in complex media. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2020;49:8088. doi: 10.1039/D0CS00309C. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ummat A., Dubey A., Mavroidis C. Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies. CRC Press; Boca Raton, FL, USA: 2005.
    1. Stroble J.K., Stone R.B., Watkins S.E. An overview of biomimetic sensor technology. Sens. Rev. 2009;29:112. doi: 10.1108/02602280910936219. - DOI
    1. Lu L., Hu X., Zhu Z. Biomimetic sensors and biosensors for qualitative and quantitative analyses of five basic tastes. Trend. Anal. Chem. 2017;87:58. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2016.12.007. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources